The Monster's Rough Play
by Amalia Autumn
Summary: Sometimes Ed never knew his own strength when it came to his right hand...


Edward barged into Winry's room, not bothering to knock. His temper was at its peak, and Alphonse, who was training by the river, was not there to quell it.

She looked up angrily from her work, "How dare you?!?!" she rose, wrench firmly in hand.

"You've got some nerve, you know that?! Some real nerve!" Edward yelled, leaning forward till he was nose to nose with her, "Callin' me selfish all 'cause I constantly wreck your damn automail! It's not my fault I get into messes, you know!"

"Yes it is, because you _choose _to get into those messes!" Winry retorted hotly, bonking him hard on the head with her wrench.

"OW!" Edward held his head with his flesh hand as he grabbed Winry's arm with his automail hand. With gritted teeth he snarled,

"You have no idea what I go through, just to get our bodies back to normal. You'll _never _know! If you had any idea, I think you'd understand! Instead you want us to stay here like some pathetic little mice, right? Huh?!?!" he squeezed her upper arm, just above her elbow.

"Ed!" Winry's eyes gleamed with fury as she used her free hand to smack his shoulder hard, "You never tell me anything!!! It's always about you, you, you, isn't it?!?! Keeping everything to yourself like some old hermit!"

"Old hermit?" Ed involuntarily squeezed harder, and then he heard it. A loud crack, a pop, and then Winry's pained scream.

Once he heard the scream, he backed away, his temper fading to confusion and concern. Winry held her arm, backing away from him while bursting into tears.

"What the hell is going on here?!?!" Pinako immediately rushed in. Upon seeing her granddaughter hurt, she ran forward and examined her arm, "Winry, what--!"

She screamed the moment Pinako touched her arm. Ed's eyes widened upon seeing Winry's bone, jutting out somewhat, but not enough to pierce through the skin.

Still, it must've been painful.

"What happened?!" demanded Pinako, instantly looking at Edward. Worry etched her features, adding more to the wrinkles that were already there on her aging face.

Edward suddenly began stuttering, like a child who tried covering his tracks after doing a terrible thing,

"I--I was just--Winry and I were just--!"

Pinako turned back to the damage, "This looks like it took some force to dislocate her elbow..."

She wasn't stupid. Anger flooded her features and she turned to Edward, rising as she began to yell,  
"Edward, did you do this?!?!"

Winry was still crying. It echoed through Edward's ears as he backed away a few steps. Slowly, his concerned look turned to horror.

"Edward Elric, you answer me right now!!!" Pinako stalked towards him.

"I--it was an accident, I didn't mean t--!"

"HOW COULD YOU?!?!" Pinako hollered, slapping him hard across the face.

"I--I--!" Edward couldn't say a word, he only held his cheek with his real hand.

"You could've done far worse had you squeezed any harder!!!"

"I--I--I didn't mean--!"

"Edward Elric, you could've practically ripped her arm off!!!!"

"I--I'm sorry, I--!" Edward stopped, then looked down at his automail hand. It began to shake as he lowered his head and spoke,

"I'm a monster!"

Before Pinako could say a word, he turned and bolted out of the house.

---

_Seven-year-old Edward Elric made flying noises as he played with his new toy airplane. He sat calmly on the grass, perfectly content with his pastime. Alphonse may have been sick, but playing alone was perfectly fine as well._

_"Ed!!"_

_Ed rolled his eyes._

_"Oh, Eddddd!"_

_Again Ed rolled his eyes. He rose to his feet as little Winry Rockbell ran forward, her new toy wrench in hand._

_"Ed, do you wanna play with me?" she asked innocently. She was bored. Unlike Edward, Winry never liked to play by herself for too long._

_Ed shook his head, his nose in air, "Nuh-uh, I'm not playin' with a girl!"_

_"You play with me all the time, so why not now?!" Winry's big blue eyes flooded with unshed tears._

_Ed sighed, not wanting to make her cry to Granny Pinako and then he'd get in trouble, "Okay, okay, fine, I'll play with you."_

_"Yay!" Winry clapped her hands._

_"Just don't touch my toy airplane, okay?"_

_"Okay!!" Winry nodded, then she finally looked at it._

_"But it looks broken." she said, hurrying to get it from his hands._

_Ed turned away, "Nuh-uh, it's not broken! See?"_

_He turned to her and showed her._

_Immediately she snatched it from him, "Gimme. I can fix it! The wheels are off! My wrench can help!!"_

_"Winryyyyy!!!" Ed immediately grabbed it, but she had a firm hold. He began pulling,_

_"Give it backkkkk!"_

_"No, it's brokennnn!"_

_"No, it's nottttt!"_

_"Yes, it issssss!"_

_"Winry...let it...GO!" Ed's grip faltered, as did Winry's, and the plane fell to the ground, breaking completely in half._

_Ed's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in anger. He looked at Winry and marched towards her, fists clenched,_

_"You broke my plane."_

_"No, _you_ did!" Winry snapped, backing away, clutching her own toy to her chest._

_"No, Winry, you broke my plane...and I told you...NOT TO TOUCH IT!"_

_Ed shut his eyes and blindly swung his fist._

_He heard his fist collide with something and then he heard a thump._

_He opened his eyes to see a toy wrench on the ground beside a crying Winry, holding her mouth and sitting on her bottom on the ground._

_Ed suddenly realized what he'd done, "Winry...I didn't mean to...I'm sor--!"_

_Before he could say a word, Winry rose quickly and ran off, still crying and holding her bleeding mouth._

---

"How could I be so stupid...?" Ed mumbled to himself as he clenched his automail fist.

He stood on the grassy hill near the Rockbell home, where the incident had happened. The place where he physically hurt Winry for the very first time.

Like that first time before, Ed's fiery temper got in the way and blinded his logic and judgement. And, also like the first time before, it was all over some trivial, stupid thing.

Ed looked down at the automail hand that had harmed Winry. The monster hand. The very same hand that, when it was still in the flesh, hit Winry's mouth those years ago (Ed had a surprisingly sharp memory when it came to that incident).

Ed had to resist the urge to rip off his automail and just transmute it into something--into _anything_. Even if he had to draw a transmutation circle on his own. The pit in his stomach worked its way up to his throat and Ed tried to swallow it down again. However, it made the back of his throat hurt as his eyes began to water.

Then, for some reason, an image of his mother came to mind.

He swallowed hard once again, and the pit fell back down to his stomach, but that didn't stop two tears from rolling down his cheeks.

Quickly, he brushed them away and made his way back to the house.

---

_Winry looked up from her little book that Pinako had bought for her to see Edward standing in front of her._

_Winry held the corner of her mouth, where a band-aid was carefully placed, and, with fear in her big eyes, moved back until her back hit the wall._

_"Winry, please don't be scared of me..." Ed pleaded, his golden eyes big and gleaming with remorse. His hands were placed behind his back as he slowly made his way towards her,_

_"I'm really sorry, Winry. I didn't mean to hit you. I just got mad, is all. I won't get mad at you ever again."_

_He moved again, and Winry flinched,_

_"Y--you're not gonna hit me, are you?"_

_"Wha--? No!" Ed exclaimed, "I'm not gonna hit you!! Mommy told me it's not nice to hit girls, so I'm not gonna hit anyone, including girls, ever again--well, except for that Sean guy that picks on you a lot..." he bit his lower lip in thought, "...and that other guy down the street who always pushes Al in the mud when it rains..."_

_"Ed." Winry whimpered, "You promise you won't hit me anymore?"_

_"I won't hurt you ever again! And that is a promise!" Ed's hands were soon holding two dandelions in Winry's face,_

_"Here! I picked them for you!"_

_"Oh, Ed, thank you!" Winry took them happily, her fear fading. Although dandelions weren't special to most people, for Winry they were the most precious things in the world._

_"Thanks, Edward! I'm gonna treasure these forever and ever!!!"_

_­_---

Winry didn't look up as her bedroom door creaked open later that evening. Granny had already wrapped her arm in a cast, complete with ointment before placing it on. Al had done the same four hours later, and he said he'd talk to Ed when he got the chance.

Speaking of Ed, she hadn't seen him at all since he hurt her. He ate his dinner outside on the porch.

Winry wasn't angry at him. It was natural instinct for her. However, she couldn't help but feel fear at the fact that Ed did indeed have a nasty temper. And this wasn't the first time she had come face to face with it.

Now that she was ready to go to sleep, Winry patiently waited for Granny or Al to slop on more ointment and rewrap her cast.

She reached for her lamp, to add light into the dark room, "I'll be ready in just a second, just let me put the--!"

She stopped speaking upon feeling an ice cold hand on her arm, featherlight and gentle on her skin. She heard the small squeak from the hand through the sudden quiet, and she froze completely and looked at the silhouette in front of her.

The only things that looked back at her were bright golden eyes, piercing and unblinking. Winry finally blinked and looked down as he gently removed the cast.

Once the cast was removed her arm trembled somewhat as he softly rubbed the ointment on her injury with his flesh fingers. Once he finished he wrapped the cast around her again, tying it well.

Winry didn't say a word.

The clouds in the sky cleared to reveal a bright moon, and from the open window it illuminated the room, finally revealing Edward's face.

"'M sorry, Winry." he muttered softly, narrowing his eyes and staring down at the sheets beneath him.

Winry could only stare. Of course he felt bad. Most definitely.

She reached with her good hand and rested it on his automail, which lay on the sheets, "It's okay, Ed."

Ed let out a short gasp, and he snatched his automail hand away.

"Don't touch it." he said involuntarily.

"Hm?" Winry was confused, "Why? Does it hurt you?"

"No."

"Then why won't you let me touch your automail?" Winry asked bluntly.

"Because I..." Ed paused.

Winry waited. Sometimes, when Ed had trouble saying what he felt (which was all the time, dammit), the best thing to do was wait it out instead of overwhelming him with sympathy or frustration.

"Because I hurt you with this hand. Just like the first time. I broke a promise to you, Winry, and I'm sorry. I'm a monster, Winry. A monster."

Winry shook her head and took his automail in both her hands, the heat from her palms warming up the cold, lifeless hand, "This hand belongs to a good man. This hand belongs to a man who, when he was a boy, gave me a piggy back ride home when I first twisted my ankle. A man who made a doll for me as his first alchemy attempt. A man who saves people's lives every single day. A man who will do anything for Alphonse. A man who just happens _not_ to be a monster." she smiled.

Ed looked at her, blinking a few times. Finally, he smiled softly and mumbled,

"Thanks, Winry. I really mean it."

"I know, Ed," Winry nodded happily, "I know."

**Okay, before everyone starts lighting their torches and pitchforks, let me explain before you all start saying, "OMG datz BS! Edward wuld neva hurt Winry!!!". Yes, I am perfectly aware that Ed would not hurt Winry--not intentionally, that is. Edward, I must say, has one hell of a temper, and sometimes it can cause you to do things you don't mean to do, thus this one-shot was written. I have a bad temper myself, so I'm speaking from experience.**


End file.
